As someone who 'attends IT networking groups' routinely, I can suggest the following:
Some of the people I've met in such groups are people I wouldn't hire and wouldn't want to work with. If you're someone that has a hard time keeping jobs, you might be one of these. In that case, you have to fix other things first.
Presuming the people you're meeting would want to work with you, you need to sort out three things:
What are the companies in your town doing? In the Bay Area, this is a tall order, but in general you're looking for the game people, the 'big data' people, the database engine developers, etc., etc. On this axis your are less interested in the specific language or operating system, and deeply interested in these company's markets and products.
Who uses the technologies you're interested in or skilled at? Now the point is to find the Java, C++, VB.NET, ASP, PHP, and so on. You'll be visiting the language or database specific groups with this in mind.
Whose doing what to whom? In short, some companies are under severe stress, others are growing like crazy, and others are suing the pants off competitors that are also vendors or customers. In short, are the prospective employers likely to get hit with some kind of surprise you aren't interested in living through?
It's probably better not to promote your availability in such meetings. The best thing to trade is scuttlebutt, so that you know your way around the halls of prospective employers. It is very important that people know who you are. Discussions of some technical depth are a good way for people to feel comfortable about joining their team.